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Housing Prices: Why Greenspan Is Right About Real Estate Investments
I’ve disagreed with some of the things that former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has said and done over the years.
But what he said last week – that falling housing prices in America are “nowhere near the bottom” – you can take to the bank.
This may surprise some, especially since the national media just reported the single largest year-over-year drop in U.S. housing prices, May’s record 15.8% plunge.
But over the past several months, I’ve spent time looking at residential housing prices in cities large and small. I’ve been to areas that have held up relatively well, like Dallas, TX and Asheville,…
6Aug2008 | Investment U | Comments Off | ContinuedWith Fannie/Freddie Bailout Plan, Treasury Secretary Paulson is Armed and Dangerous
With the nation’s financial infrastructure crumbling before our very eyes, the country’s top two economic policymakers made their way to Congress last week for an extraordinary episode of political theater.
Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the quasi-government entities that form the backbone of America’s gargantuan mortgage market, appeared to be cracking. To the somewhat bewildered members of Congress, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offered radical bailout remedies to save the lenders. Despite the fact that the proposed policies would thoroughly redefine America’s supposedly capitalistic pedigree, the moves were presented as wholly inevitable, and in the end, benevolent and…
25Jul2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedThe Magical Debt-Free Sweet Spot
There’s a house on my block
That’s abandoned and cold
Folks moved out of it a
Long time ago
And they took all their things
And they never came back
Looks like it’s haunted
With the windows all cracked
And everyone call it
The house, the house where
Nobody lives
Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone’s heartbreak
Or did someone do somebody wrong?
– Tom Waits, “House Where Nobody Lives”
This just in… Bloomberg reports that Americans continue to fall further and further behind on their mortgage payments.
Unemployment is rising. And now, carpenters, plumbers and even granite countertop installers are getting jobs with…
2Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedThe Socialization of the Mortgage Business
“Housing, Inflation both getting worse,” says a headline at MarketWatch.
The price of oil held steady yesterday – in the face of Saudi plans to pump another 200,000 barrels a day. The dollar held steady too. And the yield on the 10-year note rose to 4.24%. Gold jumped $13.
Unless you own an oil well or a goldmine, it has been a bad year. Out of the world’s 52 leading stock markets, 49 are down for the year. Ireland, for example, has lost 15% of its equity market value. Vietnam has been crushed…everyday is a down day in Hanoi.
In the United States,…
18Jun2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | ContinuedWachovia CEO Thompson Shown the Door After 32 Years of Service, WaMu’s Killinger Steps Down as Chairman
G. Kennedy Thompson, formerly Wachovia Corp.’s (WB) chief executive officer, can now be added to the list of high-profile subprime casualties that already includes Citigroup Inc.’s (C) Charles O. “Chuck†Prince III, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc.’s (BSC) Chief Executive Officer James E. “Jimmy†Cayne, and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.’s (MER) E. Stanley “Stan†O’Neal.
Thompson will step down after 32 years of service after having made a series of untimely – and ultimately disastrous – decisions that have cost the company nearly half its market value over the past year.
Shareholders began clamoring for Thompson’s removal in April after the…
3Jun2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | Continued
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